


Birthdays and Bear Paw Slippers

by mcgarrygirl78



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Drama, F/M, Romance, post-episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-11
Updated: 2014-02-11
Packaged: 2018-01-11 22:24:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1178675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I'm so mad at you right now.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Birthdays and Bear Paw Slippers

**Author's Note:**

> SPOILERS FOR PROFILING 101! I was wondering aloud just how Rossi and Strauss got together at the end of season 7 in canon. This is what popped into my mind.

She walked out onto the porch, shivering a bit in the night air. It wasn’t cold but it was wasn’t warm either. The weather was typical of this time of year. He was sitting on the porch swing and Erin handed him the mug before sitting down beside him. She sipped from her own mug and watched the rain fall.

“It’s tea.” She said. “You drink too much coffee.”

“Hey Pot, I've been meaning to introduce you to my friend Kettle.” Dave said. “He's been dying to meet you.”

“You need something to help you sleep tonight.”

“As if I'm going to sleep tonight. I think I might be getting too old for this shit. Sometimes I really think I can do and then…”

Erin didn’t reply. She knew what this night did to him. She knew lots of people who weren’t happy on their birthdays, but Dave was different. A monster decided to take his without his consent. She knew he was doing it for the victims’ families. He jumped through hoops of fire, dealt with the Department of Justice, so he could get the names. 

Every year, Dave turned a year older and one family got a sliver of closure. Because it would never be over for them. The person they loved was gone; met a violent end at the hands of a predator. There would never be peace for those families. There would never be peace for Rossi either.

“Nice slippers.” He glanced down at the bear paws on her feet.

“They were the pair right beside the bed.”

“You don’t have to lie to me, Erin.”

“Sometimes I do silly dances in them.” She said.

“Really?” Dave almost managed to smile.

“To Beyoncé songs.”

“This story keeps getting better.”

“By sometimes I mean just about every night.”

“That makes me happier than I could ever express.” He said. “I'm sorry I came over and ruined your evening.”

“Are you serious? Evening ended hours ago, Agent Rossi…it’s after midnight. You ruined my morning.”

“I'm sorry for that too.”

“Stop apologizing to me; it’s not in your nature.”

“I'm not a horrible guy.” Dave shook his head. He sipped the tea, didn’t want it to get cold. God, she still knew the way he liked it. That was saying something since Dave drank tea so rarely. She really did keep everything in the back of her head. No wonder she hated him. “Thomas Yates is a horrible guy.”

“You'd do better not to compare yourself to that scum of the earth. At least not in front of me. You're a wonderful guy.” she said.

“You don’t have to push it because I'm feeling sorry for myself.”

Dave held back the tears. He hated crying, not because it made him feel weak but because it made him feel human. It was over, he’d already seen Yates and he could be human again. But that feeling, that feeling that he had to be hard as stone, was going to stick with him for some time. 

He couldn’t let that bastard see him sweat. He couldn’t let his team see his doubt and fear. Erin wasn’t someone he ever needed to hold back with, no matter the emotion. He was going to do it anyway. Then she put her head on his shoulder. 

Dave had no idea why she did but as soon as he felt it, the first tear came down his cheek. More followed. He kept his composure but the tears came just the same. Erin put her arm around him, just held on.

“I am so mad at you right now.” His voice shook.

“Better me than yourself. At least that’s something we’re both used to.”

“You're here for me and you wouldn’t let me be there for you.”

“Ahh, this is the part of the night where you turn the tables on me. Dave…”

“Don’t.” he held up his hand, which was trembling. “Never let them see you sweat. That’s been drilled into you since God knows when, probably with love, and you can't let it go.”

“Please don’t profile me.” Erin whispered. “You know that I hate when you do that.”

“You remembered how I take my tea.”

“Some things never leave you, even when you wish to God they would.”

“Tell me about it.” Dave wiped the tears away. He ran his hand over his face, leaning back in the swing. “Are we a couple of sad sacks?”

“You might be but I, David Rossi, am pretty damn awesome.”

“You are.” He looked at her and Erin smiled. He'd known her long enough to know it was genuine. “You're shivering.”

“I'm fine.” She waved it off.

“No, the rain is adding a chill in the air. Here baby, take my jacket.”

Dave took off his sports jacket and put it over Erin’s shoulders. She was only wearing pajamas, blue gingham pants and a white scoop neck tee shirt. The shirt was slightly transparent but Dave mostly kept his eyes to himself.

“You just called me baby.” Erin said. She wasn’t looking at him anymore, preferring to put her face in her mug.

“Did I?”

“Mmm hmm.”

“I'm sorry about that.”

“Don’t be…it’s been a while since I heard it.”

“When did Eli leave?”

“Ohhh,” Erin guffawed. “That is a conversation we aren't going to have. Nope, not talking about it. And anyway, why did Eli have to leave? I may have walked away myself…or asked him to.”

“Did you ask him to?” Dave asked.

“It was a mutual decision for all parties involved.”

“Where are the kids?”

“Ted is upstairs asleep, MK is staying with her dad for now. Nora is in New York at school and plans to spend some time with her grandmother and then in Paris this summer.”

“And you're OK?”

“I'm OK.” She wasn’t sure she believed it even as she said it. So much had happened and was happening. There were days Erin wasn’t sure which way was up. But she kept going. She didn’t know any other way. Today was today, yesterday was over, and tomorrow offered something more. “I bought you a present.”

“Why?”

“For your birthday, David.”

He looked at her, Erin had the gift in one hand and her mug of tea in the other. He raised his eyebrow.

“Should I ask where you pulled that present from?”

“Don’t be a smartass.”

“It was my major in college. I didn’t choose the smartass life, Erin, it chose me.”

“Open your present…smartass.”

He drank a little more tea, which was more cold than hot now. Then Dave put the mug down on the table. He loved Erin’s quaint porch furniture. The whole outside looked like something out of Better Homes and Gardens. 

It was very Chevy Chase, Maryland. No matter if the inside was rotting, the outside would always look strong and pleasing to the eye. That analogy fit so much of what Dave saw in his life and job. He refused to put Erin in that box tonight.

Dave tore the paper off and looked at the book. Then he held it in his hands. _The Godwulf Manuscript_ had always been one of his favorites.

“It’s the first Spenser novel.” She said.

“I know.”

“It’s a first edition hardback.”

“I see that. Wow, Erin, I don’t even know what to say.”

“Look at the cover page.”

He opened the book and read the words on the cover page. _Hey Dave, please stop telling women that Spenser is based on you. In friendship, Robert B. Parker_. He ran his fingers over the words.

“How did…Erin, Bob is dead.” Dave said.

“I know.”

“Then how did…?”

“I've had it for some time.”

“But it’s written out to me.” He said.

“A friend of a friend got it for me in 2009.” Erin said. “I wanted to give it to you but I never found the right time. We were so up and down…always up and down. When you called me tonight, I knew it was the right time.”

“You’ve had this for four years?”

“Give or take.”

Dave kissed her. It was more passionate than he intended and though Erin was taken aback, she didn’t push him away. She caressed his face, sighing softly against his lips. The kiss seemed to be over before it really got started. Erin closed her eyes as her fingers danced across her lips.

“He was one of my idols.” He said.

“I know. I probably know more about you than I should.”

“I don’t know how to thank you for this.”

“Just stop telling that story to the groupies.” Erin smiled. “That will be thanks enough.”

“I don’t have groupies, woman.”

“Tell that one to someone who doesn’t know you.”

They were quiet for a while, Dave looking at his book and Erin watching the rain fall. She took a cigarette from the pack on the table and lit it. When she offered one to Dave, he declined. He hadn’t smoked since Reagan was in office. If there were old addictions to fall back on it wouldn’t be that one. Not tonight anyway.

“You may as well stay.” She said. “It’s getting late and I know you'll hit the road sometime early tomorrow.”

“I don’t want anything to be weird with Ted.” Dave said.

“He keeps telling me to get a boyfriend. Why do teenagers think they know everything?”

“The internet told them so.”

“Where are you going?” Erin asked.

“Chelsea, Massachusetts. I'm thinking about driving…I'm going to need the time to work this out in my head. The family doesn’t know I'm coming yet. Authorities plan on reaching out to them in the morning. Karen has been gone for decades.”

“That’s a long drive.”

“I’ll need it.” He looked at her. “You wanna take a road trip?”

“What?”

“We always have fun on the road.”

“We do not have fun on the road.” Erin shook her head. “You're a tyrant on the road.”

“I've changed.” He said.

“Surely not enough. You wouldn’t even let me pick the music, David.”

“I adore you but I can't listen to Carly Simon, The Bee Gees, or The Carpenters all the way to Massachusetts. You gotta at least give me some Doobie Brothers, Erin. Anyway, I'm not sure that I can do this alone. Not this time.”

She nodded but didn’t answer immediately. Erin was shivering again but it had nothing to do with the rainy night. She put her hand on top of Dave’s, which was resting on his knee. She wasn’t looking at him and he wasn’t looking at her. Still, Erin was sure they were having similar thoughts.

“You'll get some sleep.” He said. “Make your decision in the morning.”

“OK.” 

After taking one last deep inhale of the Marlboro Mild, Erin snuffed it out in the ashtray. She stood from the swing and reached out her hand for him. There were a million things they could say but the silence was comfortable. Tonight didn’t have to be real; or it could be as real as they wanted it to be. 

They weren’t impulsive anymore. They weren’t young and cocky and hard-headed. Well, Dave was still cocky and hardheaded. There was nothing wrong with holding onto each other through the shit storm. And there had been major shit storm tendencies in their lives for too long to recall.

“Should I keep my mouth shut and not ruin the moment?” Dave asked. They were in the house and walking up the stairs.

“That would be good.”

“Am I gonna get some birthday sex?”

“You just don’t know how to stop when you're ahead, do you?” Erin walked into her bedroom and closed the door behind her. “Your birthday was yesterday.”

“So what’s this?” he asked, pulling her into his arms.

“I have no idea, but you’ve got 30 seconds to tell me if you're in or not.”

“I might want more Erin.” Dave ran his fingers through her hair. “You surely deserve it and I think if we…”

“Time’s up, Rossi.” She kissed away the rest of his words and the rest of her apprehension.

***


End file.
